Should I risk leaving that job?

Question

I'm working as an English teacher and English tutor in a 3rd world country but the salary here is low I work over 16 hrs a day and I get 193$ a month.
The school that I'm working in is giving us an insurance and it has some stability like a governmental job but it's not governmental one and it's so stressing comparing with their salary.
I heard about ESL online companies or Chinese ones in particular I heard that they pay well, like around 4-8$ per hour. Should I risk leaving my job and apply for those companies? I'm afraid that they're those kind of companies that fire you without a reason or have no stability.
So I would end up losing everything by risking that.
Actually, if I worked with them it would be temporarily because I'm planning to save money to study CELTA and DELTA and then travel to work abroad and if I saved that from my current job it would take ages. That's why I need to change my job.
What should I do?
If you were in my shoes, would you risk that?

Oliverlogan263 · Accepted Answer

Hmm that's a tough spot to be in. Making only $193 a month teaching English sounds pretty rough, no wonder you want a change. The online ESL jobs definitely sound like they could pay way better, like almost double or more what you make now.

The only thing is like you said, those online companies might not be super stable and could fire you easily. That would be risky to leave your current job for that. But your current job also sounds really stressful working so many hours.

I think maybe the best thing would be to try applying for some of the online jobs first, before quitting your current one. That way if you don't find something good right away, you still have the stability of your current job. And a lot of times online companies will let you do the training and start teaching part time at first, so you could slowly build it up while still working where you are now.

As long as you're careful not to burn any bridges at your current school, I think testing the waters with online jobs makes sense. Just make sure to really research the companies and read reviews to try and make sure they seem stable first. In the long run it could definitely help you save faster for your future goals. But start small first before making a full switch. Does that help at all? Let me know if you have any other questions!

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

Generally you want to find a new job before quitting your current job. You should at least apply, then decide later. They will understand if you need to give notice to your current job. The new job might be on a regular school year cycle, so you would probably not start in the middle of a semester.

I'd be a little leery of the online places. One thing you have to be careful with is taxes. A place like Cambly for example makes it very clear that it's a "1099" job - which means they are reporting the income to the US government, but you are responsible for all taxes, including taxes that are normally paid by your employer, like Social Security and Medicare.

You might consider Japan. They pay more than the 4-8 per hour that you mentioned. I'm not sure about this, but I think they are more like $10-12/hr. The pay depends on several factors. There are some large national companies that teach English, with schools in several cities. Tokyo will be very expensive to live, but most of Japan is considerably cheaper. Many of the schools are for regular school children. Others cater to business people. One thing about them is that you are responsible for getting your own visa. For some reason they don't do it for you. I don't know if that applies to all the schools, but the ones I've looked into are like that.

WhitneySnow · Accepted Answer

I know someone who looked into working for those companies and she says from what she heard they don’t fire you unless you’re doing a bad job. So not for no reason.

ChicoFromThe305 · Answer

I think you should go for the job first and make sure you get it before risking anything with the other job.

laly520 · Answer

@chicofromthe305 he is totally right u should go for the job first before taking risks

JayBones2469 · Answer

I think your job set is one readily needed. Take the risk. If it is as you suspect and temporary, I don't think you would be long unemployed before finding another job.